Dedicated doyen of running
Trevor Gee’s life an extraordinary journey
IN ANY sporting fraternity there are folk who stand out either because they are great athletes or effective coaches, while others are in the engine room of administration.
Seldom does one person embody all three of those and more.
Trevor Gee who is marching on to his mid-90s now, celebrates his birthday on May 23.
Recovering at home this week after a brief illness, not something folk associate with the still active walker and gardener, Gee’s face still lights up with enthusiasm when talking about a sport that has defined him over so many years.
Proudly at his side sits his wife Nora, who has encouraged and supported him throughout his illustrious career.
Gee’s opening comment is: “I have enjoyed so much, had so much fun, seen the whole country and been blessed to run internationally twice.”
In 1962 Gee ran the marathon for South Africa in a triangular event against Mozambique and Zimbabwe in Maputo where he finished second and then, in 1979, he ran at the World Veteran Games in Hanover, Germany where he came eighth in his age group.
As impressive as that is, it tells only a fraction about what really makes this man stand out in athletics.
Gee is remarkably humble and has always gone about his efforts, be they on the track, at cross-country or ultimately the road in a quiet, positive yet determined way.
“I have always run well within myself. The body is your barometer and athletes need to read it,” he adds.
He joined East London Athletic Club in 1939, while still at school, and ran cross-country for them. He has remained a loyal member of the club ever since.
Gee served in the army during World War 2 and tells a delightful story about how he came down to East London when there was an inter-command athletic meeting set to take place and he asked if he could compete.
The answer was a definitive “no, we have enough athletes”.
The powers that be said, however, if he wished he could run the cross-country event on the Wednesday ahead of the weekend track events. So he entered and was told to follow the leaders, so as not to get lost.
The problem was that he was the leader and by the time he got back to the finish the time keepers had not even arrived yet. They simply did not expect anyone to run that fast.
The upshot was that they suddenly found an opening for him in the three mile track event on the Saturday, which was Gee’s speciality. And he won that too.
Track had always been his first love but when he migrated toward the road he really enjoyed it.
One of Gee’s best marathons was when he took a team of track athletes to Durban and discovered that the DAC Marathon was scheduled for the weekend.
Though not exactly prepared to run a 42.2km race he entered anyway, ran the bulk of the race on his own and won comfortably in 2:39:50 on a tough course. His best all time marathon time was 2:27.
Gee finished in the top three on two occasions at the SA Marathon Championships.
Remarkably he ran his first Comrades at 64 years of age and his first Two Oceans at 65, returning best times of 8:51:38 and 4:35:53 respectively.
Gee speaks affectionately about how he would love to gather all the youth that now live in that vicinity for weekly track events.
It would take a book rather than one article to do justice to the man and indeed his dedicated and loving wife, but one thing all who have come into contact with Trevor Gee will know is that they have walked a path with a man of great stature and a true gentleman.